A Comparative Analysis on Attitude towards Ageing of Middle-aged Adults in South Korea and Japan

Abstract

Introduction: This study focuses on a comparative analysis of attitude towards ageing among people aged 40-59 living in Korea and Japan. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether peoples perceptions on one's own future life vary in two countries. We also describe leading factors that make Korean and Japanese middle-aged adults more or less concerned about their ageing. Methods: The data for this study are abstracted from the 2010 Korea General Social Survey (KGSS) and Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS), and 579 of Koreans and 761 of Japanese middle-aged adults were included for the analyses. Three scales of attitude towards ageing were examined as our dependent variables: worry about poor health, loss of life and financial independence. Our hypothesis was that Koreans have more negative attitude towards ageing due to its unprecedentedly rapid speed of ageing and related social changes, relatively weak social welfare for seniors and weakened traditional family support. Results: The findings show that Japanese middle-aged adults are significantly more concerned about their future life than Korean counterparts. After adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics, the difference between two countries became even greater. Conclusions: This study presumed three possibilities for the reason why Japanese showed more negative attitude towards ageing compared to Korean counterparts. First, the Japanese middle-aged are more exposed to ageing related social problems. Second, middle-aged adults in Japan with higher education background and socioeconomic status are more vulnerable for mental health problems. Third, Japanese urban people are faced more with social, economic and health problems than rural ones.